In the development of foldable building structures for clearspans, various methods have been developed including foldable beams dependent from roof slabs, and various foldable plate designs; and also methods of job forming deep section roofs or floors in combination with wall sections. These methods have resulted in high labor costs for on site work for the roofs and floors, and have largely destroyed the cost savings of the folding method of assembly and erection. In addition, the lifting strongbacks required to support the roof or floor until supportive folding action had been completed, were not readily available and very costly.
In addition, there had been no method to easily erect the buildings without considerable bracing of the individual sections until the entire structure had been erected.
It is the object of this invention to provide a means for and method of utilizing structural beams as the means of lifting the supporting walls; by rigidly connecting beams to walls so that individual sections are rigid and do not require additional bracing or shoring, and further to utilizing the deflections that occur during the lifting to introduce bending moment into the rigid connections to develop a rigid frame for the section of the building and thus reduce the size of the members required for the clear spans.